BlackBerry 10 - All posts tagged BlackBerry 10

BlackBerry shed more than a quarter of its market value on Friday, putting the stock into it\’s lowest level so far this year in the $10-$11 range.

From a valuation perspective, the smartphone maker is both cheap, and expensive — though fair to note that the multiple is a fast-moving target at the moment, with analysts shredding their current estimates following the morning\’s disclosure of disappointing shipments of BlackBerry 10 devices and the company\’s expectations for a loss in the current period.

BlackBerry 10 and Windows Phone 8 — two upstart smartphone platforms that are pushing to gains some share against Android and iPhone — are still struggling to draw interest among consumers, according to a report by MKM Partners on Tuesday.

BlackBerry

The broker commissioned a survey of about 1,500 respondents in an effort to assess \”future purchasing plans.\” While roughly one-third of the respondents expressed some level of curiosity or interest in the BlackBerry and Windows Phone platforms, the number who expressed plans to buy one of those devices in the next 12 months was in the low single digits: 6% for BlackBerry, and 1% for Nokia (the one smartphone maker that is sponsoring Windows Phone exclusively.)

\”This study confirms our belief that current BB10 and Nokia WP8 products are not differentiated enough to meaningfully gain share against Android and Apple,\” MKM analyst Michael Genovese wrote in a note to clients.

While difficult to extrapolate a broad trend from a single point of data, a growing number of investors appear to be betting on BlackBerry Inc. taking a spill in the near future — possibly after the company\’s quarterly report Thursday morning.

Bloomberg

Short interest on the stock has grown significantly in the last couple of months. As a percent of the total float, short interest on BlackBerry\’s U.S.-listed shares is now 31.4%, according to FactSet.

A report from Citigroup on Wednesday morning noted that BlackBerry has the highest short interest by far of any maker of tech products that the brokerage covers. It also notes that short interest on BlackBerry has grown nearly 20% since Jan. 31 — when the company formally unveiled its new BlackBerry 10 devices ahead of their international launch.

BlackBerry Inc. finally confirmed on Monday — with the help of carrier partner AT&T — that the Z10 smartphone will hit the U.S. market on March 22. The news seemed to give a boost to the Canadian smartphone maker\’s stock, which was up more than 10% to $14.43 at last check.

The date, in line with leaked reports last week as well as the rough launch window issued by the company earlier, should give the new touch-screen smartphone a relatively open window to gain some traction with customers. Early spring is typically not a major time for smartphone launches, so BlackBerry may face less competition in the retail channels as it works to put forth its new device — with an entirely new operating system — to consumers and business customers.

Still, the launch will not be free of competitive pressures. A big one will come later this week, when Samsung lifts the wraps on its latest iteration of the best-selling Galaxyline of smartphones. Samsung is hosting a news conference in New York City on Thursday night, which is expected to showcase the Galaxy S IV.

Investors looking to assess what has become the chief rival to Apple Inc. in the wireless device market will get a chance over the next few weeks, as Samsung Electronics Co. rolls out what is expected to be some of its flagship devices for the coming year.

Samsung

On Monday morning, Samsung announced that it will hold a March 14 event in New York City, where it is expected to unveil the next iteration of its best-selling Galaxy smartphone — this one expected to come with the designation GalaxyS IV.

Also, at the Mobile World Congress trade show that kicked off over the weekend in Barcelona, Spain, Samsung launched of an 8-inch version of its Galaxy Note family. The 5-inch version of the Galaxy Note arguably created the category that has come to be known as \”phablets\” — meaning a cross between a phone and a tablet that is predominantly designed for use as the latter, but includes the capability to make voice calls over the same cell networks that smartphones use.

BlackBerry Inc. has only launched its new Z10 smartphone in two markets — the U.K. and Canada — but early data from a couple of analysts says sales of the devices have been unimpressive so far. The stock was down about 2.5% to $14 by midday Wednesday.

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In a note to clients, Pacific Crest estimated that Z10 shipments for the quarter that will end next week \”are tracking to roughly 275,000 to 325,000 units.\” BlackBerry first unveiled the smartphone on Jan. 30 and launched in those two markets a few days later.

\”We continue to believe the Z10 launch involves relatively small shipment volumes and only moderate sell-through so far in markets which have historically been some of BlackBerry’s strongest,\” Pacifc Crest analyst James Faucette wrote in his report.

The day before, Canaccord Genuity cited its own research showing slow sales of the device. Analyst Mike Walkley cut his shipment target for the device from 1.75 million units for the February quarter to 300,000 units

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